SLAUGHTER IN SOUTH CAROLINA

Even in the face of irrefutable evidence, white people, the creators of the system in which we live, have to take advantage of another of the innumerable blatant and tacit [skin] privileges they alone have been blessed with and enjoy.
This one is about the continuing conversation in the wake of the massacre in Charleston, South Carolina, and the language (like “alleged, presumed, is believed to be…”) being used, in spite of all that’s known so far. It’s as if a certain constituency is searching for ways to build a story around Dylann Roof (a possible innocence defense by virtue of…).
In the process they’re affording him a little breathing room, the benefit of the doubt as it were (akin to a presumption of innocence) before media heads and mouths, and sundry experts, having exhausted all the ways they could explain away the macabre incident, finally and rightfully yield to reality and truth of the incident and say definitively, “Yes, he did it!”
At this point Dylann Roof could then be branded “a [domestic] terrorist”, the likes of Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, who caused the death of 168 people, or Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski who sent 16 bombs to various targets, which killed three people and injured several others and tried as such.
Maybe it’s just the way the system (the judicial arm and process) plays out. But the reality and truth is this: 21-year-old Dylann Roof, a dyed-in-the-wool racist massacred 9 Black people in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church down in Charleston, South Carolina, the night of Wednesday, June 17, 2015.
We didn’t see the actual killings, but we did see an image of the killer entering the church, and we saw an image of him sitting on his car (with a conspicuous Confederate flag emblazoned on its license plate), and we saw images of him handling his killing toy (something called a Glock handgun). We also saw photo images of him sporting racist paraphernalia, apparent expressions of love for the defunct South African and Rhodesian apartheid regimes. We also saw/read excerpts of racist rants taken from his website.
Poor fellow!
So yes, based on America’s geopolitical definition, Roof’s was an act of terrorism. As such, if the 30 million or so African-Americans constituted a country, they would be well within their [international] right to take retaliatory action against Roof, the perpetrator of the unspeakable terrorist act and his sinister, nefarious supporters like the KKK and others working in the shadows…
And by the way, in keeping with the AME Church conversation, as well-meaning as some white people may be, I think it’s time they stop using terms like “minority, people of colour, people who are different, somebody who looks different…” to describe [nonwhite] peoples. In addition to being condescending, there’s also an underlying sense of “them” the superior, separating and differentiating themselves from “us” the “inferior.” Such references are consistent with Dylann Roof’s and people of his ilk skewed worldview—where the majority of inhabitants are in fact nonwhite. So they better embrace that reality and the late Rodney King’s aphorism…
Here’s another story that ran in a newspaper a few days ago, titled Charleston Massacre, Troubled by his love breakup. Apparently, it was taken from a website called The Intercept. Perhaps it’s another tidbit to suggest that Roof was having issues…
The story begins: “The degree of racism of the presumed Charleston, South Carolina, killer increased as a result of a romantic breakup…”
In an interview Roof’s cousin, Scott, said Dylann began to lose his grip when “a girl that he liked started going out with a Black guy two years ago.” Hmmm… “Dylann liked her… the Black guy had her. He changed…”
According to his cousin, Dylann was a normal guy until the time he began to “listen to music associated with white supremacy…”
Hence his diatribe about Black guys taking all their white women…And the racist church massacre.
So the talk, the debate on racism is on again… on radio, television, in social media, you name it. It’s about America’s Achilles’ heel (its obsession with guns and race) and recurring wanton killings, in this case those nine Black people who welcomed a young white man into their holy place, their house of worship, during their prayer meeting that night. And then… a devil emerged and did the devil’s work – in the church.
The day after the incident a group of people on local talk radio were discussing the incident, wondering if it should/could be regarded as an act of terrorism as stated earlier, and it’s consistent with America’s history of terrorizing people, in the beginning domestically, and in subsequent centuries continuing today, internationally.
Aside from America’s First peoples no other people have been terrorized and continue to be terrorized as America’s slaves and their progeny in the 21st Century. What happened that night down in Charleston is simply a continuation its history of terrorism that continues to be manifested in myriad ways…
That Black guy, Walter Scott, who was killed, shot 8 times in the back on April 4, in North Charleston, S.C., as he was running for his life, after an interaction with a white police officer, Michael Thomas Slager, over unpaid child support. As he lay dying… or was already dead, Slager told Scott to put his hands behind hands behind his back so he could be handcuffed.
The shooting death of Eric Harris in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, the beginning of April. The unarmed Black man was caught in a sting operation as he was negotiating the sale of ‘a gun’ (the toys of Americans’ obsession) to undercover police. He shouldn’t have done that. But when he realized he had been caught, he took off running like Walter Scott, but officers soon caught up to him, took him down on the sidewalk, at which point he was shot and killed by 73-year-old reserve wanna-be deputy, Robert Bates. He said “sorry.”
Call it racism, terrorism, racial terrorism, whatever you like; the despicable act perpetrated by Dylann Roof, fuelled by [his] hatred of Black people is American culture playing out.
And yet, those deceased Christian people whose families summoned the Godliness to say they forgive the killer are simply unbelievable human beings.
And the more the June 17 incident is discussed it not only helps to confirm, but also to reiterate what many have long stated that since the forced trip across the Middle Passage a few hundred years ago, and the arrival on America’s shores, Black people have been terrorized by sundry forces who still have not come to terms with, and acceptance of, the Black presence. They have sacrificed millions of lives in the building of their nation (but are still awaiting that pay check). Whether the racist folk accept it or not those United States are theirs too; they have earned the right to be.
In the meantime it will be a continuing struggle for Black folk until that constituency of white people like Dylann Roof who are still living in historical darkness emerge and understand that Black people are right where they belong.

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As a white Montreal I am ashamed of this city and specifically the Montreal Canadiens' treatment of P.K. Subban. But my main target of disdain is directed at Montreal's media. I must agree with Mr. Gaye's observations completely. He mirrored all that I feel. I will, however recognize the majority of hockey fans in this city that embraced and cheered P.K.'s achievements over the years. And let also be mindful of his charitable activities and the way he became a role model for all children. Thank you Mr. Gaye for your commentary! Robert Sapienza, Montreal

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